2 fined after wedding celebration led to needless search-and-rescue

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Federal prosecutors say two Rhode Island men who touched off a needless and expensive ocean search-and-rescue effort when they fired maritime distress flares to celebrate a friend’s wedding have agreed to pay $5,000 each to settle the case.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Providence says the Coast Guard and the town of New Shoreham spent more than $100,000 combined responding to the flares off Block Island on June 6, 2020, when there was no one in distress.

Authorities say 31-year-old Perry Phillips and 33-year-old Benjamin Foster knowingly and willfully communicated a false distress message to the Coast Guard.

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